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"Dreams of Hiroshima" - A documentary about the FD RX-7
Hi everyone!
I am excited to announce that I am working with my good friend and fellow FD owner Kaleb Tholen on a documentary film about the FD RX-7 entitled “Dreams of Hiroshima”. This film will look at the FD RX-7’s development, legacy, and importance to Mazda as a whole. It will include interviews with current owners and industry luminaries who designed, developed, and tested the car.
We have recently wrapped up an interview with Tom Matano, the former Head of Mazda's North American Design Studio. He is credited with designing the FD and Miata. Mr. Matano was gracious enough to sit down with our production team at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. To say it was an honor would be an understatement. We are so excited to share this experience with you. He even brought his personal FD (and MX-5) as well!
Our next scheduled interview is with John Dinkel. Mr. Dinkel is an engineer and former editor-in-chief at Road & Track. He is also co-author of the book entitled “RX-7: Mazda’s Legendary Sports Car,” which I consider one of the best books about the FD, period. Below is an image from one of our pre-production Zoom sessions.
I initially joined this forum as a teenager nearly 20 years ago. The community and RX-7 story has always inspired me, and I am incredibly humbled to be a part of a project like this. We hope this project does the community justice. We also hope the film provides an opportunity for general audiences to get a window into why we love this iconic, yet quirky sports car with its unique power-plant.
Here is a recent picture of my FDs (before the snow ):
We are chronicling the film's progress on Instagram: @dreams_of_hiroshima . I understand that many of you may not have instagram, so I will be sure to post updates here as they become available.
For those who do have Instagram, please feel free to follow the page as well as the social profiles for myself and Kaleb (@bossbattle.rx7 and @stormtrooper_rx7, respectively) for more updates. I think many of you will find Kaleb’s build especially interesting. He has a rare RX-7 Type-R Bathurst and essentially rebuilt the car from the ground up. He even did the wiring himself! He would have a build thread on this forum if he started the project 15 years ago (I posted some pictures of his build below).
Looking forward to it and best of luck on the project!
I have the book. Too bad it is hard to find now.
Thank you so much! Yes, the book is a real gem. One of my early conversations with John was about the possibility of a reprint. I know it is a bit of a long shot, but it would be pretty cool. A digital version would also go a very long way.
Originally Posted by Jatt
So excited for this, followed yesterday on the gram! Should be amazing
Thank you so much for your support!
Originally Posted by Neo
Thanks for doing this! Looking forward to it.
The pleasure is ours! This project has been a dream come true. Thank you so much for your kind words.
What an awesome project! Seems like you all are really putting the effort in, both in terms of content (interviewees) and production. Which is refreshing and encouraging to see, considering all of the youtube special's floating around these days with misinformation and cell phone footage. I already follow Kaleb's build on IG but definitely going to add the rest. Best of luck and I look forward to following your progress!
Cannot say how excited I am for something like this to finally materialize! I believe this car absolutely deserves something of this nature, and I definitely look forward to enjoying the final product!
Last edited by Manny_Apex; Feb 1, 2022 at 10:30 AM.
Very interesting. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the RX7club in it, possibly a few red-letter members? The combined knowledge and experience of all of our long-time members certainly has earned its weight in gold when it comes to keeping these running and driving properly in various states of modification.
Hey Jeff, thanks for posting on here. I’ve got an account but haven’t posted in a while. I’ll try to answer any questions as best I can.
As Jeff mentioned, we are posting updates and behind-the-scenes on Instagram. Thank you all for your support and interest in the project. The RX-7 community is an important aspect of the film and we want to highlight what makes that special. The RX-7 Club is a big part of that.
Very interesting. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the RX7club in it, possibly a few red-letter members? The combined knowledge and experience of all of our long-time members certainly has earned its weight in gold when it comes to keeping these running and driving properly in various states of modification.
It is definitely a goal to incorporate the RX-7 community. Down the line we’ll be arranging car meets to talk with owners about their experiences.
Perhaps ask Matano-san if there is an algorithm that checks every curve on an FD to comply with a set geometric formula.
Like the fibonacci sequence?
This, I feel, might contribute to the attractiveness of the FD to the subconscious.
A compound curve made up of sequential stages of the fibonacci series?
he didn’t mention anything like this, but I can give you an idea of his design goals. Everything was based around emotion and how the car makes you feel. Every design detail was essentially to be part of one cohesive structure, with unbroken lines. I’m paraphrasing, but he said “I want you to feel as though you need to run your hand across the body when you get close to it. The NSX is a great car but it doesn’t make you feel that way.”
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